by T I WADE
“When General Jones and Colonel Sinclair have completed this first manual launch into space, the computer recordings of every millisecond will become your backup for future launches. Our worst possible launch scenario is 80 degrees with 70 percent humidity and a breeze so don’t go landing in the tropics by mistake. Again, maximum thrust in this new configuration is 105 percent on SB-III, for emergencies only. You can maintain maximum thrust above 100 percent for only 30 seconds maximum before the thrusters need to be reduced to 99. At 99 percent, 60 seconds is the maximum duration before thrust must be reduced again. Slowly, the meeting went over the engine statistics….. “this gives you 28 seconds to rotate the nose of the shuttle upwards to a minimal angle of 75 degrees above horizontal before you can ignite the rear thruster. Once the rear thruster has ignition, the side thrusters can be decreased to 85 percent for the remainder of the first stage launch up to 100,000 feet. The side thrusters can run at 85 percent power for a maximum of 30 minutes, not including the higher thrust durations.”
It took Igor a full 30 minutes to get through the statistics for the pilots. Flying the new shuttle was no easy task….. “at worst, if one side thruster closes down, the only way to compensate is to ignite the rear thruster, and you know what that will do if your nose is pointing downwards.”
“Why can’t you bring the 10,000 foot rear thruster ignition down to say 5,000, or even 2,000 feet?” Jonesy asked.
“The single rear thruster will send a powerful shockwave to the ground at any altitude less than 5,000 feet. Computer scenarios show that at less than 2,000 feet, you could shake this whole airfield like a shockwave with ignition of the rear thruster. At 5,000 feet, the shockwave is expected be 60 percent less and at 10,000 feet 90 percent reduced. At 2,000 feet or above, you astronauts can begin the slow nose-up rotation during normal launch sequence, in case you detect a possible malfunction. Astronauts, to save the shuttle during a side thruster malfunction, you will do what you have to do, and you will always have manual control until Mach 2.”
“I assume an early rotation means a drop in altitude speed?” asked Allen who hadn’t done much simulator flying yet.
“Yes, by as much as 50 percent under 100 knots. Over 100 knots, it actually helps, as the nose begins to cut through the air above 70 degrees, instead of the whole roof area pushing through the air above it.
“The next launch section I want to discuss is 75,000 to 100,000 feet. We know that 75,000 feet is emergency minimum pulse thrust altitude. The new launch altitude minimum is 100,000 feet. The computers are telling us that at 75,000 feet, once your side thrusters are extinguished and begin to retract at 70,000 feet, your forward speed should stay stable at between 800 and 1,000 knots. The rear thruster should give you enough power to hold your forward speed steady. If it drops, that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t drop to less than 5 percent above Mach 1, or around 740 knots. At that time the two pulse engines need to be re-ignited. So if you have a rear rocket malfunction above 70,000 feet, the pulsers must be immediately activated.”
“And at 50,000 feet?” Jonesy asked.
“At 50,000 feet or below, you might not have an airfield to return to,” Igor replied. “We could be all dead, and every building flattened.”
“We die, darling, the airfield doesn’t,” smiled Maggie at her husband.
“Next topic, the lasers,” continued Igor. “They are coming along well and we expect to get the four-pound shipment of plutonium-238 in two weeks, maybe three.
“We have begun work on a new project: mini-laser space cubes 12-inches square. These new mini defense lasers will be completely accurate up to ten miles and semi-accurate up to 30 miles in space; they will be nuclear powered and the reactor housing occupies a second square foot.”
“Mini space drones?” VIN exclaimed, knowing full well what Igor was describing.
“Yes, VIN, exactly like what you worked with in Iraq. There is a company in Washington that has produced mini-cubes for space exploration for a couple of years. They have perfected a long-term space-capable cube, or vehicle, which can be blasted off to a passing asteroid to analyze its metal components, after which a larger cube or vehicle, would land on the asteroid and return with samples. A third unmanned vehicle from this company would then be launched to actually mine the passing rock. Ryan was lucky that he selected DX2014. Picking the right asteroid saved a lot of time. However, it is the first cube that interests us. We can use the cube’s long-term characteristics of solar energy and its ability to continuously repower itself. We will add a tenth of a pound of plutonium to a mini laser, and two mini hydrogen thrusters with a 50-pound liquid fuel cell, and a camera with live video feed.”
“They fly around in orbit and blow an enemy craft to bits?” asked VIN.
“Correct. These cubes will be like our own special forces; they will hardly be noticed by any radar. A six-inch thick hydrogen fuel cell will be designed around the cube unit and the reactor to make the unit look like space junk. The targeted spacecraft will automatically bypass the space junk, but the cube will power up and creep in from behind, out of radar view, with its hydrogen thrusters.”
“Short range attack?” suggested Allen Saunders.
“The cube, with camera and live feed will lock on and analyze the make and country of manufacture. It can be controlled from Earth, or from another craft in space.
Accurate range is ten miles, semi-accurate range 30 miles. The laser is very small, but powerful enough to melt a hole through a ship’s outer wall, destroying its bubble of life aboard. If it targets an unmanned craft, it will be programed to destroy the craft’s support systems, external solar wings, antennae, etc.”
“And if we return in a few decades, and find millions of these cubes up there beating each other up?” asked VIN.
“Well thought out, VIN,” laughed Igor. “A second section of scientists are already working liaising with the first group to analyze defense scenarios with these mini-craft. As you said, VIN, these low-cost, low-maintenance cubes could be up there by the thousands one day. Even our new GPS system going up in the next few years could be made up of these little foot-square cubes.”
“What if the Chinese get them?” Jonesy asked.
“I’m sure they already have them,” smiled Igor. “They know everything outside our fences, and we only have a head start; the rest of the world will catch up. Ryan made sure that only scientists aboard America One will work on the Cube Program. Tomorrow both shuttles will carry all of our designs and future ideas, and a dozen of these little cubes purchased from the company in Washington State.”
Before dawn the next morning, the Dead Chicken took off with SB-II in its belly, piloted by Allen and Penny. SB–II was fully loaded and was carrying VIN and family and 4.1 tons of merchandise. Included in the shuttle’s cargo were extra engine parts, laser parts, the cubes, a ton of liquid hydrogen, a ton of soda ash, and a ton of liquid helium. VIN was fully suited up in case something went wrong with SB-III’s launch.
Ten minutes after the Dead Chicken returned and was closed down, and twenty minutes before dawn—the lowest temperature of the day—Igor gave Jonesy his latest suggested power settings. The build team wanted the least strain possible on the ship.
On their launch, SB-III carried five 100-pound hydrogen fuel tanks, the same weight in extra food, water, and other necessities in case the astronauts were stranded for a time in space. A smaller half ton cargo was loaded for this virgin flight, and distributed between the fore and aft cargo bays.
“Jonesy, Igor here. With 1,110 pounds cargo weight, plus cockpit weight of 310 pounds, including your full suit, the computers suggest a 93 percent-power setting will give you lift off. Do you have anything stashed away?”
“Copy 93 percent Igor. We have nothing that hasn’t been weighed. I’m looking forward to Suzi’s vodka up there tomorrow. It was as good as the stuff I tasted in Amsterdam.”
“Copy that,” replied Igor. “Current outside ground temperature is 79 degrees; tem
perature at 5,000 feet is 55 degrees. Bob Mathews reported temperature at 10,000 is 40 degrees, and freezing point is at around 39,000 feet. Temperature at 50,000 feet was 23 degrees. Humidity is lower than expected, so you will lift off, increase power slightly and then reduce to 88 percent at 5,000 feet to begin a slow nose-up rotation. Ignition of rear thruster at 10,000 feet, reduce side thrusters to 85 percent. Readouts show you achieving 95 percent of Mach 1, at 72,000 feet at current weather configurations.”
“Copy that,” replied Maggie. “Retraction of thrusters by 80,000 feet or Mach 1, retraction time, 20 seconds; wait until 100,000 and then hit the afterburners, turn off rear hydrogen thruster at 125,000 feet. I can remember the sequence in my sleep, Igor.”
“Do you think that guy has forgotten we have spent over 100 hours in launch simulation?” Jonesy drolly asked Maggie.
“Just want you to fly safe, Mr. Jones,” Igor retorted. “We are ready for your tow to the runway launch position.”
SB-III was towed out to the newest piece of clear tarmac apart from the apron where the tow truck with generators on board kept juice flowing into the shuttle until the side thrusters were burning at idle.
Maggie looked at the outside crew and noticed that even at 10 percent idle they were being blown around as if they were standing behind a jet with its engines running.
The team headed away with thumbs up signs, and she got back to her checks. Saturn was still asleep in an enclosed crib. The crib kept her secured in a horizontal position, and the crib itself was installed on a yacht’s stove-type gimbal system, allowing it to pivot on an axis and remain horizontal regardless of the shuttle’s movement and direction.
“Wings 100 percent extended?”
“Wings 100 percent extended,” replied Maggie, backing up her husband’s checks.
“Undercarriage still down and locked?”
Over a dozen final checks had to be made before they could get into the launch sequence. The cockpit was far more complicated now, compared to the first time they had flown her. Launches on DX2014 with the Astermine craft had been much the same, but without an atmosphere holding them down.
“Increasing thrust to 50 percent, permission to leave Earth, Mr. Igor,” smiled Jonesy as the shuttle began to whine around him. He had never flown a VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft on Earth, apart from helicopters, but there wasn’t much difference. His main job was to pilot the thrusters and compensate for any forward, backward or side movement, especially in the first 100 feet or so.
“You are on your own SB-III, you are in control,” replied Igor. The ground crew were only spectators at this point, but he felt that he should be given the authority to take off.
“Power at 60 percent…..70 percent, she’s getting light, 75 percent, lighter, 80 percent she’s beginning to slip across the tarmac to starboard, going to full lift setting….93 percent power, we have lift off.”
The team in Hangar One could see a cloud of dirt heading over everything as SB-III disappeared behind it. The shock rattled the hangars, and Igor realized that a new more distant launch pad would have to be made, at least a couple of hundred yards further away from any buildings. The shock only lasted a few seconds as the shuttle rose majestically above the dust and the cloud began to disperse.
“Fifty feet…..70 feet…holding her steady….100 feet, Maggie wheels away….120 feet….150 feet, vertical speed gradually increasing….200 feet altitude…..250 feet…300 feet.”
Now that the dust storm had died down and the sun was about to rise over the eastern horizon, Igor and the team went out onto the apron wheeling a mobile trolley loaded with gauges, wirelessly reading their counterparts in SB-III. They could still see the decreasing silhouette of the shuttle, with its two white-hot blasts coming out of the two thrusters a hundred yards away and 500 feet above them. Jonesy was keeping her stable, and trying hard not to do the usual helicopter maneuver of putting the nose down to gain forward speed. He had no rotor above him, just the two thrusters, and he only needed vertical lift.
“Looking good, Jonesy,” stated Igor, holding his mike and watching the shuttle, pretty big at this distance, rise away from terra firma.
“Five hundred feet climb rate 5 feet per second… 7 feet per second… 10 feet per second……..600 feet,” continued Jonesy over the radio with dozens of people now out of their hangars watching. Everyone in the clean rooms inside the hangars were able to watch the liftoff via a camera installed on the roof of Hangar One.
“Keeping power at 95 percent, altitude 1,000 feet, I’m rotating the nose upwards 5 degrees.” To do this Jonesy just pointed the thrusters from vertical, directly below the craft, to a degree behind vertical, and the nose edged up as more power was forced to the rear of the craft. “Rate of climb, 28 feet per second, nose at 4 degrees above horizontal, altitude 2,600 feet.”
“You should start hitting the cooler air in a few seconds, which will increase your climb rate,” suggested Igor.
“Roger that,” replied Jonesy. “Rate of climb now 35 feet per second and this is the slowest I have ever flown an aircraft, except for auto-hover in a chopper. Passing through 3,000 feet….32 hundred feet and she’s starting to move away from ground. Sun is rising, 3,500 feet, in the sunshine and I’m going to miss the pool today. Don’t drink all the beer stocks guys… 4,000 feet at 49 feet per second. Rotating up 5 more degrees.”
Slowly, the craft got smaller and smaller, as the sun made the shuttle, facing westwards, emit rays of fire, just like a diamond.
“She sure is a beautiful sight,” said Bob Mathews; he and his crew were now standing next to Igor.
“Still a little slow to what the computers suggested at 4,000 feet,” replied Igor. Ground to SB-III raise your thrust rate to 98 percent for 20 seconds, your engine temperatures are normal.”
“Roger that,” copied Jonesy. “A better rate of climb, already over 65 feet per minute going through 5,000 feet….69 feet per minute, 73 feet per minute, now she’s really heading up, about as fast as an elevator!” he joked.
“Add nose up rotation,” ordered Igor. “Less drag at your low altitude, and your nose up should cut you through the air rather than force you through it.”
“Copied that, nose-up rotation another 5 degrees….6,500 feet…..7,000 feet.. engines are getting warm at 98 percent. Power?”
“Roger, I’m seeing that; reduce back to 95 percent and hold there,” Igor replied.
“Roger, rate of climb now steady at 75 feet per minute, and holding….8,500 feet, Maggie prepare for rear thruster ignition.”
“Rear thruster ignition ready,” she replied.
Even though the shuttle was rising, its forward speed was slow, and it was still directly over the airfield’s runway.
“I think the cooler air is working, we are at 95 percent and we are increasing our climb rate again… currently 89 feet per minute….93 feet per minute….95 feet, 100 feet per minute….nose 65 degrees above horizon. How many miles an hour is that? Approaching 10,000 feet….nose 75 percent above horizon… Maggie, ignition.”
Suddenly the crowd below saw a large white plume of white fire exit from the rear of the shuttle. To them it was nearly vertical as the shock wave hit them and they heard the hangar walls around them rattle.
“That’s better, 12,000 feet………… we have a real forward speed, 85 knots and climbing, reducing side thrusters. The rocket behind us is sure a comfortable feeling, about 25 percent of the wicked thrust we got from the old first stage. I thinking Saturn is still asleep….15,000 feet 130 knots.”
For the next minute, even as the shuttle got smaller and smaller above the airfield, the crowd still looked on. It seemed slow to Jonesy, real slow, but as long as three hydrogen thrusters burned, they were still alive.
“Passing through 25,000 feet, 290 knots….. 30,000 feet 330 knots, side thrusters are in optimal temperature range, but starting to cool. Suggest increasing thrust to 89 percent.”
“Affirmative,” replied Igor.
/> “Passing through 50,000 feet, 495 knots, forward speed faster than anticipated, suggest closing down side thrusters at 65,000, we know that the rear rocket can keep us going,” Jonesy suggested.
“I think 69,000 feet is a better bet or 675 knots whichever comes first,” replied Igor.
“Passing through 62,000 feet, 590 knots, speed increasing rapidly, decreasing side thrusters to 80 percent, that should buy us some altitude,” stated Jonesy a minute or so later….shuttle is now fully compliant for exit trajectory, the sun is behind me as usual. The west facing launch was perfect….65,000 feet 620 knots, reducing side thrusters.
“They are cooling too much,” replied Igor.
“So they should, we can’t put hot babies inside the cargo bay,” Jonesy replied.
“They are at minimum atmospheric safe operating temperature, close them down immediately or transfer them to non-atmospheric operating conditions,” stated Igor.
“Roger that, Ground… 68,000 feet, 670 knots, closing them down,” replied Maggie.
Both astronauts knew that closing down two of their three propulsion units would not increase their forward speed so quickly, giving the retraction system time to fold the hydrogen thrusters into their separately sealed cargo bays after cooling down to less than 200 degrees. This would take a few seconds at the cold temperatures at this altitude. Now the thrusters were becoming a slight drag with the remaining weak atmosphere on the upward movement, and this was the second most dangerous part of the launch.
“Seventy-two thousand feet…689 knots…internal engine temperature 218 degrees. Maggie, begin engine retraction in 5 seconds…4…3…2…temperatures 203 degrees, retract engines now.”
They could feel the loss of power. It felt like the shuttle was in neutral, and it didn’t feel good. The loss of thrust felt like minutes, but twenty seconds later the green retract lights came on showing that the doors were correctly sealed and Jonesy checked their rate of climb again.
“78,000 feet….701 knots, we are about to go through the sound barrier….715 knots… forward speed increasing again, rear rocket feeling good, but could do with a little more horsepower. The blast of the pulsers hurt too much, could you guys develop an intermediate thrust?”